MEDIA RELEASE
08 May 2012	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	64/2012
Mother's Day 2012: More mums heading to work

Increasingly mums are returning to the workforce when their youngest child begins school, statistics from the ABS show.

For mums whose youngest child was of school-age (6 to 14 years), 79% participated in the labour force in 2010-11, up from 77% in 2006-07.

For mums with school-aged children, 55% were working part-time in 2010-11, and 10% of those mums both wanted to and were available to work more.

Two-thirds of employed mums with children under 6 years of age were working part-time in 2010-11, and 9% of those mums both wanted to and were available to work more.

But mums don't just work in a job. In 2006, mums of school-aged children on average spent 5 hours and 9 minutes a day caring for their children, while mums of younger children spent 11 hours and 25 minutes. Those mums employed part-time spent almost 2 hours more per day looking after their children (8 hours and 34 minutes) compared to mums who worked full-time (6 hours and 39 minutes per day).

In 2009-10 there were 1.2 million mothers of children under 6 years, another 1.1 million mothers whose youngest child was aged 6 to 14 years, and a further 1.3 million mothers with older children.

The median age of women having a baby in 2010 was 30.7 years, up from 29.8 years in 2000. The median age of first-time mothers in 2010 was 28.9 years.

To find out more about mothers see the ABS online products: Gender Indicators, Australia (cat. no. 4125.0), How Australians Use Their Time, 2006 (cat. no. 4153.0), Family Characteristics, Australia, 2009-10 (4442.0) and Births, Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 3301.0).



Media note:
When reporting ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.